Approaching cliff, Norquist mellows

Grover Norquist, long the most feared man in Republican politics, says members of Congress have no reason to be afraid of him.

Based on what the anti-tax crusader said in a lengthy interview with POLITICO on Wednesday, he might actually be right.

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The typically unbending Americans for Tax Reform president — you either sign my pledge or you’re squishy on taxes — showed a more flexible, nonthreatening side at a Playbook Breakfast with Mike Allen. Norquist said House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and other Republicans need to fight mightily for deep spending cuts and against taxes. But the anti-tax evangelist steered clear — subtly but noticeably — of declaring war on members of Congress who might ultimately back a deal that includes higher taxes.

The anti-tax purist also made an unusual bow to realpolitik. To demonstrate “credible” distance from any proposals to increase taxes — a must, he said, for the GOP to distinguish itself from Democrats in upcoming elections — Norquist argued that it’s critical that Republicans not “have their fingerprints on the murder weapon.”

The GOP should demonstrate that separation by demanding negotiations be aired on C-SPAN and that the final bill be posted publicly for everyone to see.

“If you do those two things, you will not get a bad bill,” he said.

To be clear, Norquist wasn’t shrinking away from the pledge or his hard line on taxes. Instead, he skillfully dodged Allen’s questions about what kind of tax increases Republicans could agree to without breaking the pledge.

Norquist said that by having negotiations in public, Republicans would be able to “change the playing field” from raising taxes to holding Democrats’ feet to the fire over spending cuts. Republicans could have the upper hand by challenging President Barack Obama on not cutting spending.

“We have a spending problem, not a failure to raise taxes problem,” Norquist said.

While he wouldn’t get into specifics on what could or should be included in any fiscal cliff deal, Norquist did say that Republicans should insist on both comprehensive tax reform and a one-year extension of all the Bush tax cuts.

Boehner made similar comments Wednesday at a closed-door meeting with Republican lawmakers. The speaker urged them to stick together on a “principled position” to not let tax rates go up and showed slides demonstrating how the Tax Code could be reformed to close loopholes and bring rates down.

The message from House Republicans should be this, Boehner said: “We’re fighting for spending cuts. We’re fighting against increases in tax rates that destroy jobs.”

But the landscape is shifting for Boehner and Norquist, as more and more Republicans have signaled a willingness to let taxes go up on some Americans as part of a fiscal cliff deal. Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), whom Boehner described as an ally and close friend, even said this week that Republicans should agree to a tax cut for 98 percent of Americans and negotiate rates for top earners at a later point.